A Taco Bell Employee in Hyrule
by Bumoo
Summary: Ross is just trying to figure out his future. College is coming around the corner, so there's not too much time to be a kid anymore. His last hurrah of being a kid he decides he will play his favorite game of all time. Ocarina of Time. That's great and all, but what he doesn't expect is turning into a kid and being sent to Hyrule literally to save the world with Link. Hopefully.


I had mused over this story for some time. It was a thoughtful idea that made me wonder if there was ever a way for someone to see this fabled world of Hyrule. I always thought it would be most interesting to put ourselves in this world with the knowledge we have of our own world. Thus, this story was born. I do hope you all enjoy.

-Bumoo

* * *

Chapter One: A High School Senior in Hyrule

"I'm home!"

A cheerful reply came from the front door.

"Ross! Is that you?"

A happy but cracked voice rang out. This was followed by laughter and an angry voice defending himself about how he said it that way on purpose.

It was indeed Ross who was at the door. He had just finished working his shift at work from the local Taco Bell and all he wanted to do was relax. In his hands were some bean burritos that his manager had given him to take home. It was nothing unusual, because there was something about food policy that had his manager throw out the prepared food every night. Anyone who worked the night shift had this golden opportunity with anything they wanted every night. Most of his overweight coworkers would take advantage of this as they took as much food and Baja Blast as they could. Ross wasn't overweight, and was nowhere near overweight. Maybe it was because he only took food on Fridays. Maybe it was because he only took bean burritos and nothing else. Or maybe Ross just didn't eat them. Ross liked bean burritos as much as the next guy, but it wasn't the reason he was reasonably fit. These three bags of burritos weren't for him. It was for his little kid brother Josh and his friends who liked to play Minecraft together in a group. They were all middle school kids and his parents always had a migraine whenever they came over to play on the network. This happened to be every week, Friday night at eight. His parents would just leave the house every Friday night to have a dinner date with each other in place of taking care of eight heavily hormone driven kids at the house. This really helped Ross's parents in their marriage, and in Ross's eyes that was okay. He didn't mind the teenagers, because he wasn't too different from them at one time. He remembered how awkward things were in middle school, so he tried helping them out by getting them dinner every Friday night with Taco Bell. A scurry of feet came from the second level of the house and began to pound down the stairs to the kitchen. Ross set the bags down on the kitchen counter as he watched eight kids hungrily look at the bags as they began to start shouting out. His brother Josh was the first to yell.

"Ross, what did you get us this time?"

"Yeah, what did you get us Ross?"

"What are you talking about, Ross only gets us bean burritos all the time."

"Nah man, this week is probably different! This week we'll get something else!"

"Yeah right. Ross only gets one thing no matter what. It's bean burritos for sure."

"I don't mind bean burritos."

"Of course you like bean burritos Jack, you like anything that's food!"

A wail of laughter fell over the kids as a slightly obese child began to turn red from embarrassment. Ross cleared his throat and began to speak.

"Hey, shut up. Maybe these aren't for you."

A wave of silence fell over the kids and they looked at him with pleading eyes.

"Tell us you're joking Ross! You wouldn't torture us like this!"

"Yeah Ross! You're just joking man! You gotta be!"

Ross just gave a hard glare and the kids fell into silence once more. No one looked more intimidating in that moment than a high school senior in his Taco Bell dress uniform. All the kids froze in place.

"Maybe I want the bean burritos for myself this time. Ever think of that?"

A gasp filled the air, but was hushed quickly. A smile crept over his face and he began to laugh.

"Nah. I would never do that! Yeah it's always bean burritos, but hey it's food right? Dig in!"

A shout of hurrahs filled the air and some grumbles which Ross didn't mind. The few disappointed would eat the food anyways. Besides, he didn't like taking anything more than the bean burritos because he felt bad about taking anything more expensive. He just didn't want to take anything that was of value. Most would have argued that it didn't matter because it was going in the trash regardless, but he still felt bad. He walked away from the kitchen and went up the stairs to his room as the kids devoured the burritos. Paper wrappings fluttered into the air along with hot sauce packets making a disaster in the kitchen. Inside his room, he shut the door behind him as yells began to fill the kitchen of how many burritos each teen would get. His room was not a mess, but the middle school kids had left a clutter of N64 games scattered around the room; That might as well have been a mess to Ross. He sighed and began to pick everything up and put things into place. His mind began to wander and think of other things as he began picking up and placing games into their shelves across his wall. He could only think and reflect on the time he had left in school. It was April and May was just around the corner. Graduation was a lot closer than he had anticipated and that meant all his close friends would probably leave for different colleges as well. Life would change and he would have to continue on with his own life. He wanted to enjoy what little time he had to be somewhat of a kid, but it didn't look like time was slowing down just for him. He didn't want to grow up just yet, but it was just a part of life. As he finished up cleaning, he looked down at his N64 and saw The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. It was in the cartridge holder and it seemed to blankly stare at him. He had to smile because of the good memories that game held. The reason the teens respected him was because of that game. He would never forget speed running through it as the kids watched him finish the game in thirty minutes. A little over twelve minutes of the world record. They didn't believe he could do it, until he had shown them. When he had, they wouldn't stop talking.

"Woah Ross! Why don't you make a YouTube channel Ross!"

"Yeah Ross! We would totally give you a sub!"

"Nah man, I would give Ross a sub and recommend him to everyone!"

"Ross, you should play Minecraft with us man! Our server is open to you at anytime!"

His brother Josh was very happy that day, and became very proud about his brother. He strutted around for a week knowing that he had maybe the coolest brother alive among his friends. This was far from the truth, but it was a fun thought to have. Ross just liked playing the game a lot. It was his favorite, so naturally he flipped on the on switch and the system roared to life. He had some bummed out thoughts lately, and this would help him clear his mind. Ross then grabbed his remote and turned on the TV which displayed a very familiar boy riding a horse across the plains. In big bold text with a shield and sword laying the words 'Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.' This made Ross laugh with joy, because this was probably the last thing he could enjoy forever whether he was a kid or not. He pressed start and saw the three familiar files pop up. The first file was his holy and sacred file because that was the file he had beaten the game the very first time with. It didn't even have Link's name on it. He chose his own. He never deleted it, nor did he choose to play it. Link or Ross's heart gauge in this case, didn't even fill all twenty. It didn't matter, because It was joy for his five year old self and he didn't want to take that away from his past. The second file read Link and contained all twenty hearts and all the temples beaten. This was the casual play file. He constantly played and deleted this file if he ever felt the need to jump back into the game. The third file read My dude because he allowed the teenagers to play the game when they wanted. They thought it would be funny to name the character my dude kept the name. They only did it as a joke, so there was not too much progress there. Usually, he used this file to speed run but he didn't care if people deleted it or not. It was just for fun. He looked at the three files and hovered over the delete button. It was a time in his life of new roads, so he looked at the first file. The file that was his holy grail.

"Time to start as an adult…"

He muttered to himself. He deleted the file without hesitation and winced when the file went blank. He started the file up again, and read the text box that asked what the character's name would be. As fast as he had deleted the file, he put down his name 'Ross'. It was time to start anew with an older version of himself. He would make this file perfect. He accepted the name, and waited for his adventure to start like always. An unusual text box popped up instead of starting the game. It read as followed.

'Ross… Our hero needs help. Please guide him as such…'

As usual, it had the option of 'Yes' and 'No'. Ross was puzzled, but figured one of the teenagers tampered with the cartridge or something. Unlikely as it was, he pressed 'Yes' trying to ignore the fact that this was unusual. Suddenly, thunder boomed as his eyes filled with white light and instantly with darkness seconds later. His eyesight slowly began to recover as he found himself lying on his back, looking up into the stars in the middle of the night. There were hundreds of thousands of stars dancing in the beautiful midnight sky, this was the type of sky you only saw in picture books and documentaries; It was breathtaking. This was not breathtaking for Ross. It only confused him. He was just inside, but now he was outside on a field of grass next to the trees. Did one of the teens knock him out? He didn't live too far from the forest, so it was very much possible that he was dumped here. They had pulled pranks before, but this was too far. He groaned and began to stand up. Nothing hurt, so that was good. As he began walking, he noticed two things. The first thing was his uniform didn't fit. It was too loose and became very baggy. Too baggy. Second thing was the landscape. This didn't look anything like his town. In fact, the lights of the suburbs didn't shine at all. It was all fields to his left, and forest to the right glowing in the moonlight and stars.

"Woah."

Ross instantly covered his mouth out of shock. His voice was an octave higher, but that had to be a mistake. He began to speak once more, slowly.

"Hello?"

Ross fell down in shock. That _was_ his voice. An octave higher, and nowhere near the low gruff that he had before. Frantically, he looked down his pants and began to moan in horror.

"You have got to be kidding me…"

He had been turned into a kid. There was no question about it. His mind began to race for solutions. Maybe he was asleep? Yes, this was all a dream! He began to pinch himself to feel for pain. He groaned when he felt the pain on his left forearm when it started stinging. Maybe it was those out of body experiences? He thought, but that didn't make any sense. As he kept searching for reasons he found that he couldn't come up with a solution. He was a boy again, and there was no fighting it.

"He's confused. Can't you tell?"

A feminine voice had cooed out. This made Ross jump up to his feet again with his arms poised like a boxer.

"He's not confused, he's crazy! Just look at his clothes! No one would wear that!"

A masculine voice had retorted. Ross began searching around for the source of the voices, but found no one in the fields or forest. This made Ross's hair stand on end.

"Don't come closer!"

He squealed out, and immediately started cursing at himself for his awful voice. It wasn't intimidating at all.

"Yes, he's confused! That was a good response from a confused person! He's confused Maple"

The feminine voice claimed with glee. Ross had to take a moment to process that the voice claimed that the over voice was named 'Maple'. He didn't know whether he should laugh or not.

"Look, I don't want any trouble. Could you please show yourself."

He slowly asked, waiting for something to pop out from the forest.

"Maybe you're right… But there is always the possibility that he is crazy Nettle."

Ross's mouth dropped as he heard the name. What type of name was Nettle and Maple? This had to be a bad dream! There was no way anybody would name their child Nettle or Maple.

"C'mon, I don't like games. Just come out so I can see you!"

Ross pleaded. There was a pause, and the Masculine voice, Maple, began to speak again.

"He hasn't figured it out has he? He's not crazy. He's just dense in the head. Yup. That is what this is."

"Oh hush Maple. The boy needs our help, we have to help him. It is our duty."

Nettle scolded. Ross's mind began to do loops and he began to worry that maybe he was crazy.

" Fine. We'll help him. But I don't have to be happy about it."

Maple said this passively. Ross didn't understand anything at all at this point, so he began to speak once more.

"Please just help me out. C'mon, just show yourselves."

Another pause. No voices sprung out and this worried Ross. He wanted to do something rash, something he would possibly regret but before he could do anything like run away, Nettle, began to speak.

"Um. Deary, please look up."

Ross slowly looked up and saw two small floating orbs of light gently lower themselves to his eye level. One was a bright yellow that had a small lady in the middle with wings, the other was green and contained a miniature man that also had wings. They stared at him almost indifferently. Ross was so shocked, that he didn't even know what to say. His jaw was wide open trying to find something to say, but couldn't. He just stood there staring at them as his mouth barely got off one word.

"F-f-f-fairies?"

They stared at him as the green one yawned, then spoke.

"I was wrong. He's not dense, he is indeed crazy. It's like he's never seen a fairy before. Who in blazes has never seen a fairy before?"

The lady shot him a glare which made the little green man uncomfortable and turn his gaze. She then put her compassionate eyes back towards Ross who still hadn't recovered from the fact that two live fairies were talking with him.

"I'm sorry dear, Maple can be very blunt at times and can be fairly rude. Please bare with him for the moment. We are here to help you honest!"

Ross could only gawk as his brain short wired completely. This wasn't real, maybe he did go crazy. He had to be crazy in order for all of this to make sense.

"Deary, what is your name?"

Nettle asked. Ross swallowed and tried to process the words she had spoken.

"R-r-ross."

She looked at him for a moment, and her face lit up completely in the yellow glow she emitted. "Well Ross, we are going to help you! Don't you fret!"

Maple scoffed, and began to speak.

"He's gone twice over the cuckoo's nest if you ask me. We can't help him much there."

This resulted in Nettle flying over and kicking Maple in his rear end. Maple yelped and began flying away.

"Well Nettle, you go ahead and take care of him then! I'll go on ahead and meet with Link!"

He left without another word, his green glow fading in the distance. Ross's mind kicked in at that moment and his composure completely came back to him. Now his mind flooded with questions.

"Um… Nettle is it? Can I ask you something?"

Nettle looked towards him and her expression was one of curiosity and joy.

"Of course! Ask away!"

"This Link… He's a boy without a fairy... Correct?"

Ross asked. Nettle's head tilted in confusion.

"Yes, but how would you know that?"

Ross furrowed his eyebrows and cleared his throat.

"Just a small premonition of mine."

Nettle laughed and flicked her hair to the side.

"Premonition? That is such a large word for a child such as yourself! Yes, he does not have a fairy to help him in his endeavors. You must come from a line of fortune tellers to know that without meeting him. That is what you are correct? A fortune teller?"

"You can say that…"

Nettle pondered this for a moment, and began to fly ahead of him, motioning him to follow into the forest. Ross stared at her and looked back at the fields of grass. This was for real, and there was no getting around it. He turned his head towards Nettle again and began to follow her.

"Well, that's good! You can help our little band of Kokiri. You know who the Kokiri are correct? Of course you do! Fortune teller and all. That also means you know who the Deku Tree is. I'll put it simply so I don't talk too much. The fate of the Deku Tree has been one of illness, and we want him to get better. We need your help if you are a fortune teller really. He needs to know what his fate is I believe."

Nettle said. Ross was about to say that the Deku Tree would die but relive, but he had to be sure of it. He didn't want to give false news and provide grief and joy for no reason. She began to hum a tune as they kept walking in silence until another question filled Ross's head.

"Can… We see Link?"

Nettle stopped and hovered. She turned her head to meet his eyes with a puzzled look.

"Why yes. That's who we are going to see right now. He is in charge of keeping the forest protected and he'll want to know you're here."

Nettle replied. Ross sighed and smiled. He was going to meet his favorite childhood hero. Someone he thought only existed in video games. This was going to be an amazing moment.

"Yeah, alright. Lead the way Nettle."

Nettle gave him a wink and began to fly a little bit faster as Ross followed behind her, tripping over his way too long work pants as he ran. Ross couldn't be happier, or so he told himself. There was some things that still bothered him. Was this his new body? If it was, how was he going to tell his parents that it was him? If he did convince them, did he have to go through school again? He shuddered at the thought. All of those questions did have some importance, but that wasn't the grand question. The grand question was whether he could get home or not. That was the scariest question to think about. As much as he loved his game, he didn't dare think about not going back to his family. He pushed those thoughts to the side, and chased after Nettle. Those thoughts were for another time.

* * *

I must remind everyone that my works are for practice. I do wish to become a great writer in a sense, but I only get ideas of what I could be doing wrong. For instance, I believe that this small chapter feels rushed, but I do not know really. It's only a thought, but I don't have direction on what I could do to improve. I really do ask for help, and hope that you write a small note to show what I could do better. I wish to put story, drive, and tempo all into a great work so that everyone can enjoy a more refined version of my thoughts. But for now, I can only ask that you give me a quick review to help me with writing. Other than that, I do hope you all enjoyed the story.

-Bumoo


End file.
